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Portrait of Mark Dever

Mark Dever

(1960) Theologian

137 quotes in 639 categories

Mark Dever reminds us that the church is a community of people, not a building, and that evangelism should be persuasive, not coercive. He argues that prayer previews God's work and that love of God drives discipleship. He also questions how prophetic writings serve as evidence of Jesus.

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Mark Dever is a theologian, best known for How to Build a Healthy Church.

Quick Facts About Mark Dever

Born: August 28, 1960
Profession: Theologian
Notable works: How to Build a Healthy Church

About Mark Dever

Mark E. Dever is an American theologian and senior pastor of the Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. He founded the Christian ministry 9Marks in 1998 and later became its president emeritus. Dever also taught in the Divinity faculty at the University of Cambridge and served two years as an associate pastor at Eden Baptist Church in Cambridge.

Quotes by Mark Dever

Discipling involves instruction and imitation.

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Prayer is the preview of God's action.

Action

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The church is the gospel made visible.

Christianity

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A gospel that in no way offends the sinner has not been understood.

Christianity

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We do live best in this world when we keep the next in mind.

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Sin claims to free but in fact it kills.

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Correct division should be preferred over corrupt unity.

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Today is what the Lord has prepared you for.

God

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We are all called to have faith. So all of us are called to evangelize, while some are specially gifted for this…

Faith

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There are opportunities around. It takes time and motivation to take them.

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Our examples of enduring hardship are often more powerful than our stories of success and triumph.

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Pride causes us to care more about what our non-Christian friends think of us than what God will do to them in…

Care

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Evangelism is not imposing anything on anyone; it is simply sharing the truth.

Evangelism

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Humility is not an 'added extra,' one of the lesser Christian virtues. If you don't have humility, you may be lost.

Christian

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People forget that there is a big difference between coercion and persuasion. The idea that evangelism is coercive is nonsense.

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I think it's unhelpful to suggest that the task of evangelism is essentially the responsibility of ministers.

Evangelism

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If you have no interest in actually committing yourself to an actual group of gospel-believing, Bible-teaching Christians, you might question whether you…

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We may be sinking in the North Atlantic in the most famous ship disaster of all time, but God can still use…

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“The church should not be an assembly of the self-righteous but an assembly of people who admit that they are not righteous…

Church

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We mustn't be content to just sit around pointing out the errors in others; we actually need to be sharing the gospel…

Christianity

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“J. C. Ryle said, "There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have, and think they have…

Christianity

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I don't see a clerical class in the New Testament to which evangelism has been delegated. Preaching is not the only way…

Bible

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“what the Scriptures teach unsettled by their encounter with the book of Providence. This is often the case when it comes to…

Bible

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According to the New Testament, the church is primarily a body of people who profess and give evidence that they have been…

Body

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Our culture is becoming more hostile to the gospel. This trend may be more established in Australia than in the USA, but…

Australia

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We need to be realistic and recognize that there will be times when we won't be sharing our faith out of an…

Christ

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Do you want to know that your new life is real? Commit yourself to a local group of saved sinners. Try to…

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I heard about a pastor in a church of 5,000 people who employed two seminary students whose main responsibility was to get…

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All evangelists want to do is share a message about the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. But our world is…

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We are all called to initiate involvement in each other’s lives... We covenant together to work and pray for unity, to walk…

Admonish

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A healthy church is not a church that's perfect and without sin. It has not figured everything out. Rather, it's a church…

Battle

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The important thing when you are tied down is to continue to model Christ's love. This will ensure that your words, perhaps…

Christ

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“You and all the members of your church, Christian, are finally responsible before God for what your church becomes, not your pastors…

Christian

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Sometimes we have to wait a long time to see conversions.

Communication

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If you are not offending people, then you are not an evangelist.

Evangelist

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God can use even stray, honest comments to bring people to himself.

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Our fears lie to us about how important they are.

Fear

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By the grace of God I am what I am

God

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To evangelize properly by delivering the gospel, we need to follow God's agenda.

Agendas

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Keep going until you get good counsel that is persuasive for you that you should go elsewhere.

Counsel

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Mark Dever by topic

Religion (54) Christianity (47) People (28) Christian (25) Church (22) Evangelism (19) Christ (19) Thinking (16) Gospel (16) Bible (12) Time (10)